A New Challenge Awaits.

YAK ATTACK 2012 march

The days are getting shorter. The weather is turning colder and here I am getting ready for bike season. A winter of riding in the rain and snow lies ahead to prepare me for what I reckon will top the list of ultimate challenges. The highest mountain bike race on earth. 6th year running, Nepals stage race through the Annapurrna region... THE

YAK ATTACK.

10 Stages

400km

12000m vertical climbing,

Peaking at a hight of 5,416m

More information check out:

www.yak-attack.co.uk

After first reading about Yak Attack through sleep monsters adventure racing website I was immediately drawn to this outrageous adventure and challenge. To me it sounded like an amazing mountain bike race with some adventure racing flare. This isn't your typical mountain bike stage race due to the significant amount of hike a bike, the remoteness, the ranges in temps you will encounter +30 to -15c and not to mention the high altitude. With a limit of 30 competitors allowing only 15 international racers each year very few of the competitors have been female. I believe there has only ever been two women in that time from Nepal and NZ. I'm excited to be joining the limited few females who have ever attempted this race and even more stoked that I will be out there amongst at least 2 other strong females this year coming from USA and Scotland.

Extreme World Challenges is a UK based organization that puts on this non-profit race, event. Bringing this event to Nepal gives the local athletes a chance to race in an international field gaining international recognition and development. ( see "our Aim " on website for more info.) There is much talent in Nepal obviously as it has only ever been won by a Nepali. Being the first Canadian to be apart of this race and having the opportunity to have Jeremy join and follow the race I hope to report and expose the Canadian world to the talents of the Nepali athletes and the beautiful country they live among. 6 years ago Jeremy and I hiked the Annapurna Circuit( the race coarse ). I can't fathom how it will be by bike yet but I do know it will be an incredible challenge and adventure. I look forward to be retuning to this beautiful country, culture and friendly people.

Chilcotin's Riding

Float plane drop in the Chilcotin's was on the top of our list for the summer. Long rides high in the alpine amongst the fields of wildflowers with stunning views of the uniquely coloured mountains. We filled the plane with 5 of us Jeremy, Ned, Tamson, Petra and I and started our ride from Warner Lake.

The lake had a real blue/greenish colour to it just like in the rockies. All day I was reminded and had the sense of rockies riding. The plane ride was just as much as the highlight as the riding was. We saw a huge herd of goats high up on the ridge line from the plane.
Our route for the day was up to Deer pass over to Tyaughton cr trail then out Gun creek back to the cabin. We were looking at a 8-10hr day.
We had great riding weather. Going up to the pass it was a bit cooler and we even had snow fall on us at the top but we were rewarded with sunshine for the rest of the day. Snow in august. Made me feel like I was back home.
The riding was great with some real fun descents. Both Jeremy and I took the bails out of the group. Over the handle bars face and body fully submerged into the creek. Jeremy thought he'd do the same dismount as me in another creek. Nothing like riding wet for the rest of the day. The latter part of Gun creek I think it was allowed you to really open up on ripping through the trees on an almost sand like trail. Being able to get deep into the mountains and cover a huge amount of terrain on your bike with stunning views and varied riding is what I loved about it. 9hrs latter we made it back to the cabin tired, hungry, fulfilled by the day of riding with some great riding buddies.

King Fisher Spa

Having a proper spa weekend is something I've only dreamt about until last weekend. My mom flew out from Calgary for a week visit. She started out on her own solo journey up the sunshine coast for a few days with plans to meet me on the island south of Comox at the KingFisher Spa and Resort. Feeling like I needed to work at least a little bit for this ultimate relaxation, pampering experience I caught a ride to the ferry then biked up from Nanimo- Comox 100km to meet mom and make it in time for my fascial spa appointment. I wish every ride finished like that!

We had a fantastic weekend enjoying the ocean view from our room, eating delicious sea food, drinking wine, relaxing in the totally amazing hydro treatment baths and most of all chit chatting, constantly enjoying being with my wonderful mom!

My mom is one of the most amazing people I know and I cherish our relationship deeply. To have had this mother daughter weekend was a real treat and a fabulous way to celebrate turning 30.

Thank you Mom!

Lake Lovely Water, Mtn. Alpha

To celebrate our 4 yr. wedding anniversary Jeremy and I decided we'd spend it at beautiful Lake Lovely water located in the Tantalus range. Our hopes were to climb mnt. Alpha east ridge and mnt. Tantalus. As close as this park is situated to Squamish it's not the easiest to get to mainly due to the river and land issues. Our plan was to drive up to the cable car wires and tyrollean traverse ourselves across. Driving up we were stopped by an unexpected yellow gate and didn't feel right in ditching our truck there and walking the distance to the river. Our first change of plans. We returned back to town to figure out plan B. JET BOAT. We were lucky to be able to hook into another group that was using the boat so it was much cheeper for the 2 of us to get across.

The hike to reach the cabin is steep and consistently up. 3.5hr we arrived to the hut and proceeded .5hr further to reach this beautiful sandy beach camping spot next to lake lovely water looking up to mtn. Alpha. About 200m before camp I managed to slip on a wooden bridge taking me and my 55lbs pack down on my ankle. I knew I had done something to myself as I laid on the ground fighting the urge of passing out and fainting. I felt sick! After a check over of myself I knew it wasn't broken thankfully but defiantly a good sprain or roll. Good thing for first aid kits I had packed a tenser bandage. Lake lovely water is the perfect water for icing a ankle in too. We celebrated our anniversary with some wine we trekked up at one of the most beautiful camping spots I've ever been to.

The next day we took it easy to see if I could walk much. The plan for mtn. Alpha was postponed. The hut has 2 canoes and 2 row boats which we used to paddle out to the end of the lake and look at some pretty cool ice burgs and check out some pretty impressive views of the surrounding mountains. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Blue skies and temps which allowed us to hang out on the beach in our skimpies. I was able to walk not too bad on flat ground but uneven surface where you need some ankle rotation was out of the question. I figured if I wrapped my ankle well enough and keept the swelling down I could at least try for Alpha tomorrow.

5:30am we hit the trail back to the hut. 2.5hour later after battling our way though the craziest bugs on the vegetative slope we had reached the east ridge of Alpha. Crampons weren't really needed but with lack of confidence in my footing then I was happy to have them on as we crossed the glacier to gain the rock rib. We stayed on the rock ridge srambling until we reached the "buisness" of the route. Alpha is majority of a scramble with only one pitch of 5.7/5.8 which we pitched out. From then on we simo climbed 3rd/4th class to reach the summit. There was defiantly about 3 or 4 false summits. Nothing like getting your hopes up. From the pitch it took about 3-4hr to the summit. My ankle was suffering but I was in too deep now.

Ahhh the descent. Hardest part of the day. We managed to follow the top section closely to the description. It was loose and slow going. We found the repel and made our way on to the snow patches. Then I don't know where we got off route. Cliffed out at a few attempts we ended up taking a sketchy line beside a water fall. I thought for sure it was going to cliff out on us but we were lucky to find the bottom of it iced up and snow covered which made for some steep snow but more comfortably descending then the highly vegetative steep slope we previously were on. Another couple hours we had made our selves back to camp tired, successful and a little burnt. An 8-10 hour day took us more like 12 hrs with my slowness and some route finding on the decent. Next days mission was to have a lazy morning and hike ourselves back down the steep aproach.

We will return again and hopefully make it over to Tantalus. What an amazing trip in our back yard. A must do for this area!

Long time no Blog...

4 months has passed by since my last race of World's AR in Spain. Seems like a long time ago that I was running around Spain with the Ecuadorian team. Biking through the continuous rolling hills, freezing my butt off in the rain, and running around in what seemed every which way. What could have been a 6-7 day length race was cut down to 3 days for us as we had an unfortunate knee injury with a team member. As disappointing as it was to DNF a part of me was glad that the race had an early ending for us and that my racing season had come to its end. 2010 was an incredible year for me. The opportunities of racing in Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Spain was truly amazing along with the races in Canada. Moving out to Squamish BC brought a whole new playground to explore which kept me inspired, intimidated and challenged. 2010 was an exciting, different yet challenging year. With all the exciting "new" this year brought I was also missing a lot of the "old". I look forward to 2011 to some races but also to more non- race expedition adventures. I hope 2011 can be as good as this last.